GB Values

Red Shield

The Red shield’s credibility was built over the years through hard work and excellence shown by the Gracie Barra students, athletes and instructors involved in sport Jiu-Jitsu competitions, teaching programs and community work.

Fight Song

Sea of Red

Wearing the red shirt is saying it loudly to the world: I BELIEVE IN GRACIE BARRA.

The Red Shirt seeks to promote a sense of unity among the members of the GB team around the world. It promotes unity, support, equality, identity, philosophy and proud of being part of GB team. Wearing the red shirt is saying: I am part of GB Team.

Founder

Reg Directors

The develop- ment of Gracie Barra’s presence in a new territory starts through the work of a leader. Expansion and movement into different territories or areas usually starts with one school, then eventually spreads out to several other locations as students of the originating school decide to follow in the steps of their mentors.

Senior Ranks

The Gracie Barra Legacy Award was created by Master Carlos Gracie Jr. as recognition for the loyalty, support, commitment, and hard work of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu professors who have been working to build Gracie Barra for 25 years or more.

Professors

The Gracie Barra legacy is one of many champions built by great Professors and Masters. Beyond the Jiu-Jitsu contest arena. Lessons taught by our instructors have impacted positively the lives of hundreds of communities and thousands of people over the years.

Instructors

Gracie Barra Instructors are held responsible to high standards of etiquette, instruction and philosophy set by Master Carlos Gracie Jr. and the Gracie Barra Association. To maintain the integrity and focus on safety in our schools, all of our instructors are certified. Additionally, our instructors are all required to be CPR/Basic First Aid certified.

Athletes

Athletics within Gracie Barra builds community and pride through the engagement of students, staff, parents, and friends, and creates a portal through which everyone can enjoy the GB experience. Successful athletic performance generates a unique excitement across the Gracie Barra Schools and community, help strengthen bonds among the various arms of our organization, build students loyalty in a healthy manner, and give Gracie Barra members yet another reason to be proud to represent the legacy of Master Carlos Gracie Jr. and defend the red shield.

Benefits

GB News

Bjj students are generally a pretty high energy, motivated lot. It takes a certain type of mind set to show up at the academy week after week and learn what has been called the world’s most complicated martial art. But then things start to make sense and your professor awards a stripe or 2 on your white belt and you are on your way to that coveted blue belt. read also:The Dirty Dozen As a fresh new white belt you are at the bottom of the “totem pole” and are overwhelmed by the deluge of new information. All of those complicated techniques with so many details! With a blue belt around your waist you have instant “mat credit” and might feel some inner swagger that you have shredded the symbolic white belt of the beginner. So how close are you to being a blue belt? If you tapped a blue belt
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How often have you heard this statement from a newer student of bjj, exhausted after a roll: “Oh man! I need to get better cardio!” The specific student may or may not be in need of extra running or cycling outside of the academy, but many times the individual gasping out that statement is already a very physically fit individual! read also:5 Great Methods of Physical Conditioning for BJJ Why are they getting so tired? The common factor for most is that they are tensing too much. Arms fully extended, stiff and every muscle in the body rigid and flexed, holding their breath and expending WAY TOO MUCH energy to accomplish little. One old boxing coach asked rhetorically to a new student who was extremely tense and stiff during a roll “Tell me how many sports you can play that stiff and tensed!?” So how does the student who is gassing out
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Following a roll with one of the white belt students at the end of class (white belt 3 stripes vs. black belt instructor) the student seemed slightly discouraged. Read also: 3 Pieces of Advice for White Belts The student (who attends class faithfully and tries to use the techniques that are demonstrated in class) expressed that he felt frustrated that nothing he tried seemed to work against the black belt opponent (me). I explained that in fact, he was doing quite well in the roll and was doing many thing correctly! He seemed puzzled and asked why nothing he tried was working against me? I stated that I had much more experience than he did and that I could see what he was trying to do, predict his reactions and escapes and was prepared to defend his moves. But that didn’t mean that he was not doing the correct things! He was measuring his
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Last class while teaching the technique portion of the bjj class (attacks from side control and overcoming a defensive opponent) I was observing two of the more serious students drilling the techniques. Their approach was markedly different to drilling than the lesser experienced students and I noted: FAR more effective in REALLY LEARNING the techniques being taught. The other students were all concentrating on repeating the moves that I had demonstrated for everyone. “How do I grip the collar? Where should I put my body weight?”. Trying to get the mechanics of the technique correct. But the more experienced pair were digging much deeper into the same technique. What were these more experienced students doing differently? I recall an old training partner I used to be paired with (who is now a very skilled black belt) who used to train this same way. Our kimonos would be drenched with sweat by the end
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I was listening to an interview with a top MMA coach (who is also a bjj black belt) in which he was discussing the differences between bjj with the kimono and that style of bjj that is used in MMA. There are some obvious differences: No sleeves to control No collar chokes Adding the threat of punches makes being on the bottom more risky And so on… The coach explained that he DID advocate training jiu-jitsu with the gi as there were many additional benefits to training with kimono – even for MMA fighters. The interesting point the coach made was he used the term “universal jiu-jitsu”. He defined that as a style of jiu-jitsu game that was applicable across all of the different applications of bjj (see article link). Read also: The 5 Expressions of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu He stressed that his students should be mindful of how they are building their bjj
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Visit any bjj internet forum and there most certainly will be a debate on learning jiu-jitsu for the street / self defence vs. learning pure sports jiu-jitsu. Grandmaster Helio Gracie himself believed that the most important part of learning jiu-jitsu was for a smaller, weaker opponent to be able to defend themselves against a larger attacker. Also read: The 5 Expressions of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu And if you ask the average new student to bjj why they decided to start learning jiu-jitsu, hitting berimbolos in bjj tournaments is not high on the list. The most common answer is that they wanted to learn some personal self defence. “Old school” professors stress the street application of jiu-jitsu more so than many of the modern sports bjj centred schools. It IS important to retain the REAL fighting aspects of bjj, lest it devolve into a game with little relation to the jiu-jitsu developed by the Gracie family.
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When a student first begins to study bjj, they discover that there are an enormous number of moves that must be learned! Not only are there an overwhelming number of individual moves (and seemingly infinite variations) but each move has so many details! read also:The Dirty Dozen And the student goes about learning the most important moves and their variations. Each class is exciting and brings a new solution to their problems in rolling. With enough moves to roll productively (do you know what you should be doing in each position?) assembling the individual moves into a “your game”. At a certain point in the more advanced learning, the student becomes more aware of the important role of “concepts” in applying their moves. Why is a black belt more successful at applying basic techniques than the purple belt who may know just as many individual techniques? The black belt is making greater use
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More and more, when I have conversations with advanced belts who have been training for several years, they say that they have returned their training focus to the “basic” techniques. Hip bump sweeps, over/ under guard pass, cross collar choke from the guard. All techniques you commonly see demonstrated in the Fundamentals class at Gracie Barra. After spending years and many hours on the mats performing advanced spider guard sweeps and gogoplatas, they find their training efforts returning to those “old school” techniques. read also: Don’t Ignore the Basics : Advanced Techniques Too Quickly Why is this? Because we see, even at the highest levels of IBJJF competition (and certainly in MMA!) the submissions in black belt matches usually result from basic techniques like bow and arrow choke or straight armlock. And if you have ever rolled with a high level black belt you may have found yourself submitting to the basic cross
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After rolling in the academy last night a student (with more than a year of experience) asked me how I felt he could get better at bjj at his level (3 stripes white belt). I told him that there was a ‘secret’ to getting better at bjj and he could write this down if he wanted. His interest immediately spiked and he moved in closer to hear the secret revealed. I said in a quiet voice so that only he could hear what I had to say. “Do you want to improve your bjj skills? Here are the ‘secrets’. 1) Train at least 2-4 times per week You must put in the mat time above all else. I don’t care if Grandmaster Helio Gracie is your professor, if you are not on the mat with him several times a week, you can not develop your skills. Acquiring a complex skill like brazilian jiu-jitsu
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This is one of those catchy sayings from the world of sales that came to mind when I thought about this article. For our purposes, it is not about assuming the exterior appearance of financial success but instead using fakes when attacking in bjj. This is a piece of advice that I often give when a student has started finding it increasingly difficult to catch submissions in training – especially when the rest of the training partners are now wise to their favorite attacks! Direct, straight forward attacks are difficult to catch on opponents when they can identify the technique you are doing and know the defence. It is time to use deception, subterfuge! read also: Got “Jiu”? What is the “Jiu” in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? While on a training trip to Rio de Janeiro I took several privates with some highly ranked black belts.You might ask “what techniques one black belt would look
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